Mental Illness

Ancient Societies

The Greek physician Hippocrates was one of the first scholars to challenge the notion that disease was punishment sent from the gods. He believed that all illnesses, including mental illnesses, had natural origins. (Ancient Societies, Mental Illness)

The literature of ancient Greece and Rome contains evidence of the belief that spirits or demons cause mental illness. In the 5th century bc the Greek historian Herodotus wrote an account of a king who was driven mad by evil spirits. The legend of Hercules describes how, driven insane by a curse, he killed his own children. The Roman poets Virgil and Ovid repeated these themes in their works. The early Babylonian, Chinese, and Egyptian civilizations also viewed mental illness as possession, and used exorcism—which sometimes involved beatings, restraint, and starvation—to drive the evil spirits from their victim. (Ancient Societies, Mental Illness)

Not all ancient scholars agreed with this theory of mental illness. The Greek physician Hippocrates believed that all illnesses, including mental illnesses, had natural origins. For example, he rejected the prevailing notion that epilepsy had its origins in the divine or sacred, viewing it as a disease of the brain. Hippocrates classified mental illnesses into categories that included mania, melancholia (depression), and phrenitis (brain fever), and he advocated humane treatment that included rest, bathing, exercise, and dieting. The Greek philosopher Plato, although adhering to a somewhat supernatural view of mental illness, believed that childhood experiences shaped adult behaviors, anticipating modern psychodynamic theories by more than 2000 years. (Ancient Societies, Mental Illness)